This comes a bit late, as I just don’t have much time to blog at the moment. I’ll keep trying but won’t make any promises, at least not for the next half year or so (I’m in the final stretch of my studies and have a lot to write over the next few months).

April comes with all kinds of film related events – there’s plenty to choose from, but it’s quiet compared to what is awaiting us in May. Continue reading →

February may be a short month, but it’s not lacking in South East Asian film events. The Glasgow Youth Film Festival hits the jackpot with the UK premiere of Studio Ghibli’s「風立ちぬ」(Kaze Tachinu/The Wind Rises, Japan, 2013). London and the rest of the UK wait on as the wider cinematic release of the film has apparently been postponed for later in the year.

Last updated: 4/2/2014

Note: As always, I will be updating this post if I hear of any more events. Let me know if you see anything missing!

It’s the first day of 2014 and I’ll start with an Events post, after having to give December a miss. Not all that much is happening this month – in part, because no details have yet been released on a several possible screenings (Asian Movies Meet Up, Korean Film Nights, Terracotta Film Club, Films at the Embassy of Japan). The only one that I’m fairly sure that will happen is the Asian Movies Meet Up, as I recall the organisers skipped December but announced that the event would be back in January. No word meanwhile on what kind of film screenings the KCCUK will be organising this year. It’s probably unlikely that after the Year of 12 Directors (2012) and the Year of 4 Actors (2013), they will run a special, year-long event series with special guests again, but fingers crossed that we’ll at least be getting the bimonthly Korean Film Nights back. I’m not sure about the Terracotta Film Club either (it’s permanent link seems to have disappeared from the Prince Charles Cinema website) and the Films at the Embassy of Japan have always been rather irregular.

Fortunately, there are events that have been confirmed and we can already also look forward to February as the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme will kick off at the last day of this month.

November events… like October, it’s a busy month, full of festivals and other special screenings. I wrote this post somewhat in a rush, so I have the feeling I must have missed some of what is going – let me know if you notice any glaring omissions!

Note: Will do the Events Widgets on the side in the morning, need to go to bed!

I’m not quite ready to be back yet (still busy marking exams)… but I thought some of you might appreciate not having to wait too long for the monthly Events post.

So, what’s on offer this June for South East Asian film fans in the UK? We have got「009 Re: Cyborg」screenings in Edinburgh, Liverpool and elsewhere, a Jackie Chan film in Derby as well as a fabulous Imamura Shohei Retrospective at the Sheffield Doc/Fest, but for the rest it’s all happening in LondonUpdate 7/6/2013: Not quite. I totally blanked on the Edinburgh International Film Festival – so there is loads outside of London as well! Anyhow, it’s a month of festivals and celebrations to commemorate a number of anniversaries.

We start with Seasons in the Sun: The Heyday of Nikkatsu Studios, one of the calendar highlights at the British Film Institute in June. The Terracotta Film Festivalis about to kick off and promises to be bigger and better than ever with 27 films (and plenty more) from all over East Asia in store for cinephiles. June is also a good month for Studio Ghibli fans as multiple screenings are scheduled for two animations that were first released 25 years ago, plus another Double Bill at the Prince Charles. I’m also looking forward to「長州ファイブ」 (Chosyu Faibu/Choshu Five), an anniversary screening organised by the Japanese Embassy that commemorates an event from 150 years ago and I’m super-thrilled that a rare indie gem,「はなればなれに」(Hanarebanareni/Kuro), has popped up on the East End Film Festival programme. So we are really not short on choice this month, heck, it almost feels like October, which is normally the height of the film festival season in London town. Anyhow, peruse what’s on and, if you are not in the capital, it might be a good time for a visit!

May brings Cannes with many exciting film premieres. With the English Channel in our way, we’ll however have to make do with events on this island instead. Luckily, a whole lot is on offer this month, in all corners of the UK – Derby, London, Leicester and even Inverness. You can get a taste of Hong Kong cinema as well as watch quite a number of Japanese olden goldies (directed by Ozu Yasushiro and Kurosawa Akira, among others) at various cinemas and festivals across the country. There is also the Chinese Visual Festival, but nothing Taiwanese this month. Korean films fare a bit better – though only because our beloved Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) is, as always, screening two films as part of its Year of 4 Actors Korean Film Nights for year. The good news, however, is that the KCCUK has just launched another film season, Women on Screen, which commences in May and will run until August, doubling the monthly offering of screenings.

For trailers, click on film titles (where available).

Note: As always, I’ll update this post if I hear about any other events.

The KCCUK has announced a new, special film season entitled “Women on Screen: Understanding Korean Society and Women through Films”, which will run from May 9 to August 22, 2013. This season comes on top of their Year of 4 Actors Korean Film Nights.

April, April… this year is flying by… I would rather not think about it though. Instead, let’s just see what April has in store for us, film-wise mostly but also otherwise as there are some exciting events at the London Book Fair and elsewhere too.

Note: As always, I’ll update this post if I hear about any other events.

Waikiki Beuradeoseu begins, somewhat aimlessly, with a band of musicians, middle-aged and in a sort of midlife crisis. The four members of the Waikiki Brothers play songs they don’t like at events and places (small weddings, third-rate clubs) where they do not wish to be. The gigs are underpaid, barely allowing them to scrape by, and audiences could not care less about the group performing on the stage. It is far from the dream that the (original) Brothers had in mind twenty, thirty years ago when they first screamed their voices hoarse at school assemblies, trying to impress teenage girls. Continue reading →

The Korean Cultural Centre in London (aka the KCCUK) gave Korean cinephiles a special treat in 2012 with the Year of 12 Directors: one Korean director for every month of the year, four screenings (most of them free) for each filmmaker, with a bonus for the final session: a Q&A event with the director of that month flown in straight from South Korea.

There is one particular problem with Moojeokja, a remake of John Woo’s 英雄本色 (Yīngxióng běnsè/A Better Tomorrow, Hong Kong, 1986): it is an action film made by a director that is in reality only interested in sentimental melodramas. Continue reading →

It’s the final month of the KCCUK‘s Year of 12 Directors (and, yes, it’s already more than half-gone-by). I don’t really want to believe it either, for one because it means 2012 is nearly over but also because what in the world will we be doing on Thursday evenings starting from January on? I’m hoping the KCCUK will still organise some film screenings, but I’m guessing it won’t be quite as many as this year.

As for December: It’s Lim Soon-rye (임순례, sometimes also romanised as Yim or even Im Soon-rye) who is the final director of the year, and she’s also the only woman in the line-up – a reflection of that female directors in South Korea are still rather limited in number.* Continue reading →

December, December… the year is coming to an end and at least in this part of the world people are sort of busy with Christmassy things. This also means that there is relatively little going on in terms of film festivals and film screenings. I couldn’t find much at least – do give me a heads up if you see anything I missed or if you hear about any new events being organised.

November is here and I want some fog pretty please. And snow for my birthday – that’s on top of my wish list every year, but in this country it’s always a wish unfulfilled (in my native one, sometimes I get lucky, sometimes I don’t).

Events are winding down a bit after the super-intense month of October (Raindance, BFI Festival, Scotland Loves Anime, etc.)… or maybe it’s just because I’ll be missing out on some of them that the month doesn’t feel quite as overwhelming, for quite a few events are scheduled, including the ever-bigger London Korean Film Festival and the Leeds International Film Festival.

Note 1: This page will be updated as more information becomes available. If you see anything I have missed, do alert me to it!

Note 2: This month’s Events image is inspired by 우리들의 행복한 시간 (Woorideuleui Haengbokhan Sigan/Maundy Thursday aka Our Happy Time, 2006), which will be screening at the KCCUK. Originally a Korean novel, it became a (Japanese) manga (「私たちの幸せな時間」/Watashi-tachi no Shiawase na Jikan, 2007, by Sahara Mizu aka Yumeka Sumomo) as well as the Korean film.

In the post-screening Q&A the film’s director, Jeon Kyu-hwan, noted that what lies at the heart of Varanasi is a wish to expose hypocrisy, the hypocrisy in human behaviour that permeates our realities. Hypocrisy it is indeed when a married man that has been having an affair with one of his protégées at work for months reprimands his wife after she miscarries the child she was pregnant with in a terrorist attack committed by her own lover. Continue reading →

The film festival season gets into full swing (this month’s cover image should give you a visual impression of the deluge of films coming our way): Raindance continues, the madness of the UK’s biggest film event – the London International Film Festival – descends upon the capital, to be followed by the most comprehensive Im Kwon-Taek season that we have probably ever seen in this country, while J-animation fans get their fix up north at Scotland Loves Anime. Let’s hope we’ll all still be breathing when the month is over!

Note: This page will be updated as more information becomes available. If you see anything I have missed, do alert me to it!

Well, here’s another benefit of having recently become a BFI member: their monthly guide came tumbling through the mail box this dreary-wet morning with details on an upcoming Im Kwon-Taek season.

We had some vague knowledge about this already as it has been listed on the programme for the KCCUK’s Year of 12 Directors since the beginning of the year, but now follow the details: eight film screenings plus a special “Im Kwon-Taek in Conversation” event at the BFI plus seven films at the ICA. Continue reading →

Ever so often when I watch a film, the narrative unfolding on the screen skips a beat: something is hushed over or ignored in a way that doesn’t realistically reflect life. Characters, for example, end up confined in some space for days but somehow the issue that there is no toilet never seems to come up. Or certain moments – like the moment after a couple has sex – are glossed over. Gaps of this sort may be to trim off bits that are not essential and to keep a tight storyline, however, too often it simply feels that directors take the easy way out, omitting what is too awkward or simply too mundane to show, leading, in the worst of cases, to lapses in the film’s narrative logic. Continue reading →

Trailer Weekly day. I’m back in London and suffering from the sudden 15 degree drop in temperature (the weather is just miserable!) and the fact that my breakfast doesn’t include mango anymore. Boohoooo. Never mind that the autumn months are looking insanely busy already, leaving me unsure whether I’ll have even time to breathe… all my September weekends are already planned out and some of October’s as well. Although I’m still a bit disappointed that I had to turn down presenting at the Cultural Translation and East Asia: Film, Literature and Art conference, which takes place in Bangor, Wales, next week, I know it was the more sensible decision in terms of time and workload. Despite the full schedule ahead, I’m hoping I will fit in more film reviews this month, as only three in August was a new low – sorry!

On to trailers, trailers: we are 50/50 this week: 50% Korean, 50% Japanese.

September means that the film festival season is starting, with the Zipangu Fest and the Raindance Independent Film Festival kicking off first. There are of course festivals all year round, however, it just seems that autumn brings particularly many and particularly big ones in short succession of one another. It’s a busy time for us Asian and world film lovers.

If you attended the screening for August director Lee Yoon-ki’s 사랑한다, 사랑하지 않는다 (Saranghanda, Saranghaji Anhneunda/Come Rain Come Shine, South Korea, 2011) on Thursday night, you will have already had a taster of the K-director of September: a trailer for Jeon Kyu-hwan’s 바라나시 (Varanasi aka From Seoul to Varanasi, South Korea, 2011) preceded the screening and gave a glimpse of what this coming month holds in store. Like myself, you might have been equally awestruck about how much emotion a completely dialogue-less trailer of 2:30 min evoked already, hinting at a craftsman who knows his game and promising a rewarding month ahead for London film fans. Continue reading →

I am away in India all this month, so you will have to enjoy these screenings for me. Apologies for the post being a day late – it does mean some events are over already – but airplanes still are lacking behind in offering internet services (heck, didn’t I even have a power point at my seat!).

There doesn’t seem to be all that much on at the moment. I guess the Olympics are entertainment enough? But I think this bit of ‘cinematic quiet’ is not all that bad as September and especially October will bring a deluge of film festivals, including some of the UK’s biggest.

UPDATE 2/8/2012: Might have to eat my own words – at least for fans of terror and horror, all kinds of things are being screened.

Juuuuust posting this in time before Sunday is over – I had nearly finished the Trailer Weekly a few hours ago, but then a Japanese friend of mine came for dinner and I was (happily) distracted for a while, enjoying lovely company and yum food (oven grilled summer veg from the farmers’ market + couscous with sour cherries and pistachios + Korean style edamame & cucumber salad + cherries + Greek coffee).

This week’s Trailer Weekly begins with lots of USAmericana (including some big budget films), but trailers from Japan and Korea follow as well.

As August arrives and the world comes to London for the Olympics, so does the cinematic vision of Lee Yoon-ki, the KCCUK’s director of the month. Like always, there are four film screenings to look forward to, which I am all going to miss out on except the last one (I will be out of country). That last one – 사랑한다, 사랑하지 않는다 (Saranghanda, Saranghaji Anhneunda/Come Rain Come Shine, 2011) – I have been wanting to see so much that I gave up on an extra week or two that I could have still spent away and booked my return flight to arrive, just in time, the day before the screening plus Q&A. Yes, that’s the extent of my K-film addiction.

Geudaeanui Beulru isn’t the kind of film that is instantly likeable. You will most probably find yourself feeling lost in its first 15-20 minutes, which are a fast-paced flash of bright images, often oddly monochrome – not, as one might initially presume, because the film’s physical quality has decayed over time. As little is explained and no narrative thread is yet obvious (even if the same faces repeat on the screen), what is happening – and where it is all going – is not clear at all. Only when Yurim (Kang Soo-yeon) moves in with Hoseok (Ahn Seong-gi), does a storyline begin to emerge.

This month starts off with a bang as several festivals continue and others are about to commence. It gets a bit quieter towards the middle and end of July, but perhaps that’s not to compete too much withOlympics? Well, that’s the rationale we can make for London at least. Continue reading →

It’s (almost) July. The Olympics are coming to London this month but so is Lee Hyun-seung (이현승, alternate English spelling Lee Hyeon-Seung) in the KCCUK’s Year of 12 Directors. What to get ready for? Korea’s first ‘feminist’ movie, a romance classic that even Hollywood couldn’t resist and ex-gangsters gunned down by their past. Continue reading →

It’s the final lines of Wangeui Namja that best sum up the film: All the world’s a stage. Date-wise the Shakespearean quote is a little misplaced, given that the setting of Wangeui Namja is the early 16th century Joseon, but As You LikeIt, where it is taken from,was written around 1599 or 1600. That said, the metaphor very likely preceded the Bard of Avon, if not in exact words than at least in its conceptual form. Continue reading →

A great range of events this month. Lots of fabulous films. The ICA in particular is showing plenty of love for Korean cinema and then there is of course the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which has all kind of gems on offer.

It is seemingly the most random topic for a documentary: the lives of the first Koreans that emigrated to Cuba at the beginning of the 20th century. Who would have thought? And it is the most random topic, one that the director, Song Il-gon, stumbled upon in his fascination with Che Guevara and with a curiousity to see how things looked 50 years on from the Cuban revolution, discovering in the midst of his readings that some hundred years ago several thousand Joseon natives embarked on a journey – unbeknownst to them at that point – of no return to the other side of the world. Continue reading →

NOTE: This post has been updated (10-05-2012) as the one of the films planned for May 10th has been added to the May 24th screening (due to refurbishment of the KCCUK I believe). The screening of A Perfect Day (no further information is available on this film, but I presume it is a short) seems to have been cancelled.

For a film that some critics have praised as “the greatest Korean romance ever made”, Song Il-gon’s 깃 (Git/Feathers in the Wind) features rather little romance. This is not due to the set up, which does have all the potential for a love story: Jang Hyun-seong (played by an actor of the same name), age 33 and single, is a screenwriter suffering from writer’s block, who travels to Biyang-do, a remote island in the south of Korea somewhere near Jeju-do, to keep a promise made with an ex-girlfriend a decade earlier. Continue reading →

In the southern sea of Korea there lies an island by the name of 꽃섬 (Ggotseom, or Flower Island) where all misery and sorrow is forgotten. Ggotseom is where Ok-nam (Seo Joo-hee), Hye-na (Kim Hye-Na) and Ju-jin (Im Yoo-jin) are headed, although their journey does not start together. At the beginning of Song Il-gon’s feature film the three women are strangers to one another – solitary beings wrangling with their own pain under the same grey sky of Seoul. Continue reading →

You may have noticed that I added an events calendar to Otherwhere a few days ago. It’s not particularly fancy and doesn’t quite have the sleek look I would like – I’m unfortunately limited to Google calendar by WordPress – but at least it’s something. You will primarily find screenings and special events for Japanese and Korean films plus world cinema film festivals on the calendar, most from London but also from elsewhere in the UK if I happen to come across them. Select screenings in other parts of the world (like the Studio Ghibli film events in North America) will be added too. Continue reading →

With the home of the Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) being in London and hosting fantastic events such as this year’s weeklyYear of Twelve DirectorsKorean film nights and the annual London Korean Film Festival, it can sometimes feel like that Korean cinema can only be experienced in the capital. But there is Korean cinema to be seen elsewhere too, it just takes a little bit of ‘keeping your eyes open’. Continue reading →

We are entering the third month of KCCUK’s Year of 12 Directors. March showcases four films of Park Kwang-su (박광수), none of which I am familiar with. Indeed, I have not watched anything by Park, so I am hoping to make it to all the screenings. He certainly sounds like an interesting filmmaker.

Seen at the Apollo Cinema (Piccadilly Circus) as part of the KCCUK‘s Korean Film Night programme “2012: Year of the 12 Directors”. The screening included an introduction by Dr. Daniel Martin and a Q&A with the director after the film.

The first word that comes to mind – probably within a minute or two of watching Lee’s Hyeongsa – is ‘idiosyncratic’. Classed as part of the Korean New Wave of cinema – yet distinct from many of them – it was released within a few years of a slew of internationally successful East Asian (mostly Chinese/Taiwanese) martial arts films (also known as 武侠/wuxia). Hyeongsa was somewhat misunderstood by Western critics, as this short Guardian review readily demonstrates. Although equally a period drama involving spectacular sword fights, Hyeongsa is nothing like 臥虎藏龍 (Wòhǔ Cánglóng/Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, 2000) 英雄 (Yīngxióng/Hero, 2002) and 十面埋伏 (Shí Miàn Mái Fú/House of Flying Daggers, 2004) and did not fit into the mould of expectations created by these sleek productions. Continue reading →

The full 2012 programme for the Korean Film Nights at the KCCUK is below. I apologise in advance for anyone that doesn’t live in London because I realise this list might make you green with envy. And to the KCCUK: Can I reserve a seat for all of these, pretty please? Continue reading →

Seen at one of the bimonthly Korean Film Night screenings at the KCCUK on 12 September 2011, followed by a Q&A with director Kim Tae-yong. (Note for Londoners: the film is available at KCCUK’s library.)

Three stories are told in Family Ties (original title 가족의 탄생/Gajokeui tansaeng, literally Birth of a Family). They are set in different moments in time but are connected, although this does not become apparent until the very end of the film – it is even something that can (almost) be missed as character-aging, perhaps unsurprisingly for a Korean production, is not the film’s strongest suit. Continue reading →